Color is omnipresent, but organizational research features no systematic theory or established method for analyzing it. We develop a relational approach to color, conceptualizing it as a means of positioning relative to a reference group or style and validating it through a computational method for processing digital images. The research context is Norwegian black metal—a genre of extreme metal music that achieved notoriety in the early 1990s through band members’ criminal activity. Our analysis of 5,125 album covers between 1989 and 2019 confirms the alignment of aesthetic and music features and articulates the role of color in the construction of a relational identity based on forces of association and disassociation. Black metal bands associated with past color choices of non-black metal bands up to a point, after which they started to disassociate from them. The positioning is dynamic, pursuing adaptation to external events. Black metal bands reacted to their stigmatization in Norwegian society by increasing colorfulness and later returning to a darker aesthetic in defiance of the genre’s commercialization. Our analysis attests to color’s ability to organize producers’ exchange of information and attention, illustrating the interweaving of aesthetic features and relational processes in markets.
AasdalP.LedangM.2008Once Upon a Time in Norway. Hamar, Norway: Grenzeløs Productions.
2.
AdornoT. W.1997Aesthetic Theory. London, UK: The Athlone Press.
3.
AlbersJ.2013Interaction of Colour (50th Anniversary Edition). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
4.
AloumiA.NorooziS.EvesB.DupacM.2013 “The impact of color contrast on the perception of complexity–simplicity of design product.” International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, 1: 233–254.
5.
AskinN.MauskapfM.2017 “What makes popular culture popular? Product features and optimal differentiation in music.” American Sociological Review, 82: 910–944.
6.
BaldessarelliG.StiglianiI.ElsbachK.2021 “The aesthetic dimension of organizing: A review and research agenda.” Academy of Management Annals, 16: 217–257.
7.
BaxandallM.1985Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
8.
BeckerH. S.1963Outsiders: Study in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Free Press.
9.
BeckerH. S.1982Art Worlds. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
10.
BellE.WarrenS.SchroederJ. E.2014The Routledge Companion to Visual Organization. Milton Park, UK: Routledge.
11.
BesteP.KugelbergJ.2008True Norwegian Black Metal: We Turn in the Night Consumed by Fire. Brooklyn, NY: PowerHouse Books.
12.
BeyesT.2017 “Colour and organization studies.” Organization Studies, 38: 1467–1482.
BielbyW. T.BielbyD. D.1994 “‘All hits are flukes’: Institutionalized decision making and the rhetoric of network prime-time program development.” American Journal of Sociology, 99: 1287–1313.
15.
BlochP. H.1995 “Seeking the ideal form: Product design and consumer response.” Journal of Marketing, 59: 16–29.
16.
BoxenbaumE.JonesC.MeyerR. E.SvejenovaS.2018 “Towards an articulation of the material and visual turn in organization studies.” Organization Studies, 39: 597–616.
17.
BreigerR. L.1974 “The duality of persons and groups.” Social Forces, 53: 181–190.
18.
CattaniG.FerrianiS.GodartF.SgourevS. V.2020 “Introduction: The aesthetic turn in strategy: Creating value with style.” In CattaniG.FerrianiS.GodartF.SgourevS. V. (eds.), Aesthetics and Style in Strategy (Advances in Strategic Management, vol. 42): x–xxxiii. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited.
19.
CavesR. E.2000Creative Industries: Contracts Between Art and Commerce. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
20.
CeruloK. A.1995Identity Designs: The Sights and Sounds of a Nation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
21.
CIE 2000 “ILV: International lighting vocabulary, 2nd edition.” International Commission on Illumination. http://Cie.Co.at/e-Ilv.
22.
ConnellanK.2013 “The psychic life of white: Power and space.” Organization Studies, 34: 1529–1549.
23.
CreedW. E. D.TaylorS. S.HudsonB. A.2020 “Institutional aesthetics: Embodied ways of encountering, evaluating, and enacting institutions.” Organization Studies, 41: 415–435.
24.
DeLongM.Goncu-BerkG.2012 “What color is sustainability?” In DeLongM.MartinsonB. (eds.), Color and Design: 89–100. New York: Berg Publisher.
25.
DeversC. E.DewettT.MishinaY.BelsitoC. A.2009 “A general theory of organizational stigma.” Organization Science, 20: 154–171.
26.
EatonN.2012 “Nomadism of colour: Painting, technology and waste in the chromo-zones of colonial India c. 1765–c. 1860.” Journal of Material Culture, 17: 61–81.
27.
EckertP.2004 “The meaning of style.” Texas Linguistic Forum 47. Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Symposium about Language and Society, Austin: 41–53.
28.
ElliotA. J.MaierM. A.2007 “Color and psychological functioning.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16: 250–254.
29.
ElsbachK. D.2003 “Organizational perception management.” Research in Organizational Behavior, 25: 297–332.
30.
ElsbachK. D.2009 “Identity affirmation through ‘signature style’: A study of toy car designers.” Human Relations, 62: 1041–1072.
31.
ElsbachK. D.FlynnF. J.2013 “Creative collaboration and the self-concept: A study of toy designers.” Journal of Management Studies, 50: 516–544.
32.
EmirbayerM.1997 “Manifesto for a relational sociology.” American Journal of Sociology, 103: 281–317.
33.
EverittB. S.1968 “Moments of statistics kappa and weighted kappa.” The British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 21: 97–103.
34.
FineG. A.2001Difficult Reputations: Collective Memories of the Evil, Inept, and Controversial. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
35.
FineG. A.MontemurroB.SemoraB.StalpM. C.ClaussenD. S.SierraZ.1998 “Social order through a prism: Color as collective representation.” Sociological Inquiry, 68: 443–457.
36.
FormilanG.2021 “Style typologies and competitive advantage.” In CattaniG.FerrianiS.GodartF.SgourevS. V. (eds.), Aesthetic and Style in Strategy (Advances in Strategic Management, vol. 42): 19–47. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited.
37.
FroshP.2003The Image Factory: Consumer Culture, Photography and the Visual Content Industry. Oxford, UK: Berg.
38.
FuhseJ. A.2009 “The meaning structure of social networks.” Sociological Theory, 27: 51–73.
39.
GadamerH.-G.1986The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
40.
GellA.1998Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
41.
GodartF. C.2018 “Why is style not in fashion? Using the concept of ‘style’ to understand the creative industries.” In JonesC.MaoretM. (eds.), Frontiers of Creative Industries: Exploring Structural and Categorical Dynamics (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 55): 103–128. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited.
42.
GodartF. C.GalunicC.2019 “Explaining the popularity of cultural elements: Networks, culture, and the structural embeddedness of high fashion trends.” Organization Science, 30: 151–168.
43.
GoetheJ. W. von1840Theory of Colours. London, UK: John Murray.
44.
GoffmanE.1963Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood, NJ: Prentice Hall.
45.
GoodmanN.1978Ways of Worldmaking. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.
46.
GraddyK.2013 “Taste endures! The rankings of Roger de Piles († 1709) and three centuries of art prices.” The Journal of Economic History, 73: 766–791.
HebdigeD.1979Subculture, the Meaning of Style. London, UK: Routledge.
49.
HoadC.WhitingS.2017 “True Kvlt? The cultural capital of ‘Nordicness’ in extreme metal.” M/C Journal, 20. https://DOI.org/10.5204/mcj.1319.
50.
HudsonB. A.2008 “Against all odds: A consideration of core-stigmatized organizations.” Academy of Management Review, 33: 252–266.
51.
HudsonB. A.OkhuysenG. A.2009 “Not with a ten-foot pole: Core stigma, stigma transfer, and improbable persistence of men’s bathhouses.” Organization Science, 20: 134–153.
52.
HuntR. W. G.2005The Reproduction of Colours. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
53.
IsaacL.2009 “Movements, aesthetics, and markets in literary change: Making the American labor problem novel.” American Sociological Review, 74: 938–965.
54.
IvanoviciM.ColibanR.-M.HatfaludiC.NicolaeI. E.2020 “Color image complexity versus over-segmentation: A preliminary study on the correlation between complexity measures and number of segments.” Journal of Imaging, 6: 1–15.
55.
JonesC.SvejenovaS.2018 “The architecture of city identity: A multimodal study of Barcelona and Boston.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations: Multimodality, Meaning and Institutions, 54B: 203–234.
56.
Kahn-HarrisK.2006Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge. Oxford, UK: Berg.
57.
KaufmanJ.2004 “Endogenous explanation in the sociology of culture.” Annual Review of Sociology, 30: 335–357.
58.
KressG.Van LeeuwenT.2001Multimodal Discourse—The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London, UK: Arnold.
59.
KressG.Van LeeuwenT.2002 “Colour as a semiotic mode: Notes for a grammar of colour.” Visual Communication, 1: 343–368.
60.
LabrecqueL. I.PatrickV. M.MilneG. R.2013 “The marketers’ prismatic palette: A review of color research and future directions.” Psychology and Marketing, 30: 187–202.
61.
LenaJ. C.PetersonR. A.2008 “Classification as culture: Types and trajectories of music genres.” American Sociological Review, 73: 697–718.
62.
LiebersonS.2000A Matter of Taste: How Names, Fashions, and Culture Change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
63.
LipovetskyG.SerroyJ.2013L’esthétisation Du Monde. Vivre à l’âge Du Capitalisme Artiste. Paris: Editions Gallimard.
64.
LobingerK.BrantnerC.2019 “Picture-sorting techniques: Card sorting and Q-sort as alternative and complementary approaches in visual social research.” In PauwelsL.MannayD. (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Visual Research Methods, 2nd ed.: 309–321. London, UK: Sage.
65.
MenkeC.2013Force: A Fundamental Concept of Aesthetic Anthropology. New York: Fordham University Press.
66.
MeyerR. E.HöllererM. A.JancsaryD.Van LeeuwenT.2013 “The visual dimension in organizing, organization, and organization research.” Academy of Management Annals, 7: 487–553.
67.
Meyers-LevyJ.ZhuR. J.2010 “Gender differences in the meanings consumers infer from music and other aesthetic stimuli.” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20: 495–507.
68.
MoynihanM.SøderlindD.1998Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House.
69.
OniansJ.2007Neuroarthistory: From Aristotle and Pliny to Baxandall and Zeki. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
70.
PastoureauM.2008Black: The History of a Color. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
71.
PattersonD.2013Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House.
72.
PhillipovM.2012 “Extreme music for extreme people? Norwegian black metal and transcendent violence.” Popular Music History, 6: 150–163.
73.
PorterM. E.1985Competitive Advantage. New York: Free Press.
Rabe-HeskethS.SkrondalA.2008Multilevel and Longitudinal Modeling Using Stata. College Station, TX: STATA Press.
76.
RileyC. A.1995Color Codes: Modern Theories of Color in Philosophy, Painting and Architecture, Literature, Music, and Psychology. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
77.
Rose-GreenlandF.2016 “Color perception in sociology: Materiality and authenticity at the Gods in Color show.” Sociological Theory, 34: 81–105.
78.
RosiT.MalgieriM.OnoratoP.OssS.2016 “What are we looking at when we say magenta? Quantitative measurements of RGB and CMYK colours with a homemade spectrophotometer.” European Journal of Physics, 37: 065301.
79.
RuefM.2000 “The emergence of organizational forms: A community ecology approach.” American Journal of Sociology, 106: 658–714.
SgourevS. V.AlthuizenN.2014 “‘Notable’ or ‘not able’: When are acts of inconsistency rewarded?” American Sociological Review, 79: 282–302.
85.
ShannonC. E.1948 “A mathematical theory of communication.” Bell System Technical Journal, 27: 379–423.
86.
ShermanG. D.CloreG. L.2009 “The color of sin: White and black are perceptual symbols of moral purity and pollution.” Psychological Science, 20: 1019–1025.
87.
ShipilovA.GodartF. C.ClementJ.2017 “Which boundaries? How mobility networks across countries and status groups affect the creative performance of organizations.” Strategic Management Journal, 38: 1232–1252.
88.
SilkJ.2013 “Open a vein: Suicidal black metal and enlightenment.” Helvete: A Journal of Black Metal Theory, 1: 5–19.
89.
SimmelG.1957 “Fashion.” American Journal of Sociology, 62: 541–558.
90.
SimmelG.1991 “The problem of style.” Theory, Culture & Society, 8: 63–71.
91.
SolomonT.2005 “‘Living underground is tough’: Authenticity and locality in the hip-hop community in Istanbul, Turkey.” Popular Music, 24: 1–20.
92.
SpenceM.1973 “Job market signaling.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87: 355–374.
93.
StratiA.1990 “Aesthetic and organizational skill.” In TurnerB. A. (ed.), Organizational Symbolism: 207–222. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
94.
StratiA.2000 “The aesthetic approach in organization studies.” In LinsteadS.HöpflH. (eds.), The Aesthetics of Organization: 13–34. London, UK: Sage.
95.
SulerJ. R.ZakiaR. D.2018Perception and Imaging: Photography as a Way of Seeing. New York: Routledge.
96.
SuttonR. I.CallahanA. L.1987 “The stigma of bankruptcy: Spoiled organizational image and its management.” Academy of Management Journal, 30: 405–436.
97.
SwidlerA.2001Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
98.
TardeG.1897L’opposition Universelle: Essai d’une Théorie Des Contraires. Paris: Félix Alcan.
99.
TaussigM.2009What Colour Is the Sacred?Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
100.
TillyC.1998Durable Inequality. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
101.
TurnerB. A.1990 “Introduction.” In TurnerB. A. (ed.), Organizational Symbolism: 1–11. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
102.
WalserR.1993Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
103.
WhiteH. C.1992Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action. Networks Vol. 112. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
104.
WilliamsR.2006 “Generalized ordered logit/partial proportional odds models for ordinal dependent variables.” The Stata Journal, 6: 58–82.
105.
WitkinR. W.1990 “The collusive manoeuvre: A study of organizational style in work relations.” In TurnerB. A. (ed.), Organizational Symbolism: 191–205. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
106.
WyszeckiG.StilesW. S.2000Color Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae, 2nd ed.New York: Wiley Classics Library.
107.
YanevaA.2009 “Making the social hold: Toward an actor-network theory of design.” Design Culture, 1: 273–288.
108.
ZarkadiT.SchnallS.2013 “‘Black and White’ thinking: Visual contrast polarizes moral judgment.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49: 355–359.
